Science at Duke

INSPIRE

INSPIRE

INSPIRE, short for Inspiring New Scientific Perspective in Research and Ethics, is a forum where graduate students can get together and talk about science in a multitude of facets outside of our direct area of research.

Each meeting, we grab some food and gather around a table to tune into a new topic of conversation. It’s like a family dinner, if your family was a group of budding scientists! We exchange ideas, sometimes getting a little heated, but we take the time to really dissect science in new and interesting ways. Though our meetings are slated for an hour, we often get swept up in the discussion and talk for 1.5 or 2hrs.

This time away from lab to deepen our understanding and broaden our thinking is crucial for us to consider how our work affects the world around us, and vice versa. Often new scientific techniques or discoveries have striking implications for the public, and in turn, policies and public perception impact science. Talking about these things keeps us engaged with the big picture of science, allowing us to zoom back and forth from the fine details of scientific work to its real-life implications.

It’s fun, head-scratching, and frustrating at times, but we are all better thinkers for it.